Call drops: Jio to report operator-wise data

Reliance Industries on Friday asked incumbent telecom service providers to provide adequate interconnect points in their network to ensure calls from Jio subscribers go through to their users, and said it will begin reporting operator-wise call failures on its web site.

The company also asked the incumbents to provide mobile number portability facility to Jio -- which allows a customer to migrate from one subscriber to another, while retaining the existing telephone number -- now that commercial services have been announced.

"Incumbent operators have maintained that once Jio intimates Department of Telecom and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) of its commencement of services in accordance with the License conditions, they would provide adequate inter-connection facility to Jio as per Jio's requirements and mobile number portability facility," the company said in a statement.

"We expect and hope that following commencement of services by Jio, the incumbent operators would fulfil their obligations to provide adequate interconnection and mobile number portability facility," it said.

"In the spirit of putting the customer-first and complete transparency, Jio would report its operator-wise call failure numbers on its website, awww.jio.com', on a regular basis," the company said in the statement, while acknowledging the welcome accorded by existing players to its entry into India's telecom and data services space.

The statement comes against the backdrop of Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani telling shareholders on Thursday that in the past week alone its Jio users faced some 50 million call drops due to insufficient interconnect facility provided by existing players, thereby giving a wrong impression about the quality of his company's service.

"The onus is rightly on the incumbent operators not to misuse their market power by creating unfair hurdles, when it comes to providing points of interconnect between their networks and Jio's network. Such hurdles will serve only to create a poor experience for Jio customers who are trying to make calls to incumbent operators' networks," Ambani had said.

Jio, on Friday, also announced that all existing test users will transition to the Jio welcome offer from Sep 5.

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This again follows Ambani's announcement on Thursday that all domestic phone calls, including roaming, from the Jio network will be free forever, and that a four-month introductory offer was being made to everyone of a zero-tariff voice and data services, beginning on September 5.